12/05/2011 @ 9:00AM

The PGA'sYoung Guns

As the 2012 PGA Tour tees off in Hawaii in January, Tiger Woods–with a new swing coach, new caddie, new management, new corporate endorsements, and more healing time–remains the most riveting vision in golf. But the competitive landscape around him is changing fast: Seldom has the tour seen such an influx of hungry, young talent. (You say who’s on the leaderboard?)

The young contenders seem to come from everywhere, reflecting the continued global spread of the game (and the reason golf will resume as an Olympic sport in 2016). Some cut their teeth on overseas tours (South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Germany’s Martin Kaymer), others in U.S. college programs (Webb Simpson, Luke Donald), still others in the game’s minor leagues, in particular the PGA Tour’s own Nationwide circuit (Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Nick Watney).

It’s not just that they’re younger than ever–a record 20 tournaments were won by players in their 20s on tour this year–and fitter than ever, and can spank the cover off the ball; it’s also that the current crop seems to have a perverse instinct for drama. Schwartzel won the Masters by birdieing Augusta’s last four holes. No one had ever done that. Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship after being five strokes back with only three holes to play–that’s a tworound comeback in most events. Billy Haas won the 2011 FedEx Cup in a sudden death playoff after first hitting into a lake on the penultimate hole and then hitting it stiff out of the same vast puddle to stay in the game. Everyone wants to wear Tiger’s laurels.

That may be premature, but it is not farfetched–just look at Woods’ aborted 2011 campaign. Despite a tie for fourth in the Masters, he limped off midway through the opening round of the Players Championship this past May, citing pain in his left knee and left Achilles tendon. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship, only the fourth missed cut of his career and his first in the final major of the season. He has now undergone four operations on that knee and won the 2008 Open while playing with a fractured tibia and torn anterior cruciate ligament, all this on the leg that is pivotal–literally and figuratively– in unleashing Woods’ power, and thus the area of Woods’ body that is most likely to suffer the stress of a playing schedule.

Not that there aren’t enough spoils to go around. In his dominant years, Woods averaged six wins per season, but those years also averaged 11 or 12 first-time winners and even that usually left 20-plus other titles for the taking. Where Woods really bestrode the golf world was in the majors–from his first, the 1997 Masters, to his last, the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods won 14 of 46. Since that 2008 U.S. Open win, 13 players have shared the 14 majors, with only Irishman Paddy Harrington winning twice, and he’s now 40. Most of the recent major winners are golf’s new Generation Z crowd, including Kaymer, who spent eight weeks at the top of the World Golf Ranking this year, and McIlroy, who not only won the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes but also tied or set 12 Open scoring records.

Here are five twentysomethings to keep your eye on in 2012.

The New Leaderboard

KEEGAN BRADLEY Raised in Vermont, Bradley played college golf at St. John’s in New York City. His one major win, this year’s PGA, came at his first attempt in any major. (He also won earlier in the year, at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in Texas.) There’s nothing that stands out about Bradley’s game statistically, other than a 12th place in total driving (combo of distance and accuracy), which means he keeps the ball in play. It may be the genes: His aunt is LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley.

JASON DAY In 2010, the young Aussie tied for tenth in his first PGA Championship. In 2011, he tied for second in his first Masters and also finished second in his first shot at the U.S. Open. Majors do not appear to rattle him. He also led 2011′s tour in making birdie or better on par-threes, which is to say that Day, while he averaged longer than 300 yards off the tee, has an old-fashioned bent: He likes to work his irons.

BILLY HAAS Haas’ father, Jay, was a tour standout; his uncle Jerry is golf coach at Wake Forest; his brother, Jay, Jr., has had a cup of coffee on tour; and his uncle Bob (Goalby) won the 1968 Masters. Haas, a star at Wake Forest himself, did not win in 2011 until the tour championship– which won him the FedEx Cup–but golf fans tend to forget that he twice lost in playoffs earlier in the year and won two tour titles in 2010. Here’s a small something: This past year, Haas was third on tour in holing putts measuring 5 feet or shorter. That may not seem like much, but ask anyone: Making knee knockers can keep you in contention.

DUSTIN JOHNSON How can you not watch Johnson? Never mind that he was third on tour last year in driving distance (314.2 yards) and fourth in birdie average (4.2 per round). No one on tour has crashed so much. The South Carolinian was leading the 2010 U.S. Open by three strokes with 18 holes to play, then shot an 82. He would have been in a playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson in the 2010 PGA Championship but was penalized for grounding his club in a bunker on the final hole. He was in the thick of things in the final round of this year’s British Open before he shanked a routine fairway shot out of bounds. But Johnson has won five times on tour already. Fans may shake their heads at the catastrophes, but he’s a stroke away from big things.

WEBB SIMPSON He wasn’t on a lot of radar screens until he won the Deutsche Bank during the FedEx Cup playoffs, and finished second in the FedEx standings. The former Wake Forest star also finished second on tour in scoring average (69.25) and in official earnings ($6.35 million). Only Luke Donald bettered him. But Simpson also won the Wyndham Championship in 2011 and might have won in New Orleans had he not had to penalize himself (ball at rest moved) with three holes left to play in this year’s Zurich Classic. He then lost in a playoff.